Since ever I do work on portrait of people close to me: mostly family and friends. This occasional distraction within my own “program-work” becomes more and more regular now. Therefore I paint those I love, admire and feel related to or those I miss, like my grandparents recently passed away. Self portraits are being part of this as well – it’ might have something to do with self therapy.
Michal Korman: Self portrait at the café where they played the Doors, oil on canvas, 40×30 cm, Brussels 2009
Michal Korman: Self portrait at the café where they played the Doors, oil on canvas, 40×30 cm, Brussels 2009
Michal Korman: Maxim, oil on canvas, 41×30 cm, Paris 2018
Michal Korman: Maxim, oil on canvas, 41×30 cm, Paris 2018
Michal Korman: Zoe, oil on canvas, 41×30 cm, Paris 2018
Michal Korman: Zoe, oil on canvas, 41×30 cm, Paris 2018
Michal Korman: Lea, oil on canvas, 40×30 cm, Paris 2019
Michal Korman: Lea, oil on canvas, 40×30 cm, Paris 2019
I’ve came to a decision of painting the intimate garden spaces. The moste intimate ones are flower-pots and vases – isn’t it? Therefore I paint those I possess. The first attempt dates back to 2010 when I painted a big canvas which as for object plants growing in the bathroom of my Parisian apartment.
Michal Korman: Mes pots de fleur (le petit pot chinois), oil on canvas 33x40 cm
Michal Korman: Mes pots de fleur (le petit pot chinois), oil on canvas 33x40 cm
Michal Korman: Mes pots de fleur (le pot thaïlandais), oil on canvas 33x40 cm
Michal Korman: Mes pots de fleur (le pot thaïlandais), oil on canvas 33x40 cm
Michal Korman: My pots ( tea pot with ornements), oil on canvas 33x46 cm 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( tea pot with ornements), oil on canvas 33x46 cm 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( broken tea pot), oil on canvas 35x27 cm, 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( broken tea pot), oil on canvas 35x27 cm, 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( blue german pot), oil on canvas 35x27 cm, 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( blue german pot), oil on canvas 35x27 cm, 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( blue tea pot), oil on canvas 27x46 cm 2017
Michal Korman: My pots ( blue tea pot), oil on canvas 27x46 cm 2017
Michal Korman: Mes pots de fleur (le vase bleu), oil on canvas 80x40 cm
Michal Korman: Mes pots de fleur (le vase bleu), oil on canvas 80x40 cm
Michal Korman: My pots ( japanese iron pot), oil on canvas 40x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots ( japanese iron pot), oil on canvas 40x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots (small tea pot), oil on canvas 30x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots (small tea pot), oil on canvas 30x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots ( white ceramics), oil on canvas 40x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots ( white ceramics), oil on canvas 40x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots (white pot), oil on canvas 40x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots (white pot), oil on canvas 40x30 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots (ancient slavic jar), oil on canvas 55x46 cm, 2018
Michal Korman: My pots (ancient slavic jar), oil on canvas 55x46 cm, 2018
June 2015 and 2016. I got to Weligama on the southern coast of Sri Lanka, with a delivery of paintings the owner Anna Egorkina asked me for. Some of my paintings and prints were previously acquired by owner of Eraeliya Villas and Gardens and I was delighted when she asked me for more painting to be done for one of the superior rooms in the main villa: Samaya. The orderer’s idea was to have a three round paintings hung up under the roof, so they’d overlook the space of the chamber. I’ve decided to work with animal species endemitic to the island. Six weeks after the primary sketches, the paintings were drying all over my livingroom, and waiting to be wrapped and shipped to Eraeliya Villas and Gardens – a little piece of paradise on Earth. They joined my other decorative panels: “Peafowl paintings” in the lobby and “Foo dog paintings” in Nelum villa.
Michal Korman: Erealiya Villas & Gardens
Eraeliya Villas and Garden, Lobby in main Villa
Michal Korman: Peafowl paintings, 2x oil on canvas 140×70 cm, Paris 2014
Michal Korman: Villa Nelum where my two small “chinoiserie” paintings are places at the entrance of a building.
Michal Korman: Shishi (female), oil and golden powder on canvas 72×60 cm, 2013 Paris
Michal Korman: Shishi (male), oil and golden powder on canvas 72×60 cm, 2013 Paris
Villa Bawana, dispositions of my works, photo: Eraeliya Villas
Michal Korman: working on tondo
Michal Korman: Sigiriya (A Blue Magpie of Ceylon), oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Anuradhapura (detail of work in progress), oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Anuradhapura (A Golden palm civet), oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Kandy (A Sri-lankan grey hornbill), oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Sigiriya, oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Kandy, oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Anuradhapura, oil on canvas, 100 cm, 2016 Paris, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens
Samaya Room, Eraeilya Villas and Gardens, photo: Andrew Torn
The other room on the same floor: Ramaya, also has a painting that I’ve made in 2015, it serves as a cover of the TV board. The subject is young Rama during an evening puja in a pond surrounded by tropical flora:
Michal Korman: Young Rama at the pond, oil on canvas, 2 compositions of 75×90 cm each, Weligama 2015, Eraeliya Villas and Gardens
Michal Korman: Young Rama at the pond, oil on canvas, 2 compositions of 75×90 cm each, Weligama 2015, Eraeliya Villas and Gardens
My first ever published illustrations for a story book by Milan Kališ, an young Slovak author, handle with both fascination and critique of urban life, just like the knotty, heavy jungle-like texts of the edition are. Milan gave me free hand to come with some drawings for the collection of short (and long) analysis of contemporary city life. This was rather challenging, as his writings are as complex and as detailed as could be and there was, to my eyes, no need to ‘illustrate’ these story or transfer part of them into drawing. But the idea came to me not to ‘base’ my illustration on text, but to create an independent art work to ‘add’ value to the artistic aspect of literature, better than to just describe with images what Milan brilliantly says. The trash tattoo-like or graph-like urban drawings in black and white appeared a clear option then to me, and as despair and efforts to get rid of it seemed to be the central point of his story-telling genius, I immediately thought the theme of a ‘sin’ would give the effect I looked for – not actually depicting the story on ‘other media’ level, but this could create a new story within the book based on the same kind of ‘research’ as Milan’s stories are. The choice has been made. Under the influence of my recent trips to the very medieval Avignon and Florence, I decided not to ‘picture’ the sin as an act, but I’ve turned to the medieval iconography of ‘sin-in-itself-pictured’. Giotto, Bosch, Dûrer etc. constituted for me the starting point of my research. The old playing-cards forms were another source of inspiration. The ‘seven deadly sins’ series was born and Milan accepted to integrate this to his book ‘ Rozdrásané duše ‘ ( – this would be translated as something as: Disjont souls).
Michal Korman: book cover
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Luxuria ), black ink on paper, 2015
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Ira ), black ink on paper, 2015
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Gula ), black ink on paper, 2015
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Superbia ), black ink on paper, 2015
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Acedia ), black ink on paper, 2015
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Avaritia ), black ink on paper, 2015
Michal Kucerka: SDS ( Invidia ), black ink on paper, 2015
The book can be purchased it any bookshop in Slovakia, or on-line here: http://www.martinus.sk/?uItem=218945
Signed and numbered giclée prints on fine art paper of these illustrations 30×20 cm can be purchased by contacting me by e-mail for 350 € (7 prints in total + international shipping included).
